Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to contact information handling by user interfaces and, more particularly, to interacting with phone numbers and other contact content contained in browser content.
Description of the Related Art
Modern mobile communication devices often have multiple user interfaces which exchange information over different communication channels. For example, many mobile phones are equipped with a Web browser, a voice telephony interface, and a dispatch interface (with possible enhanced dispatch services). Mobile device users often fetch or receive telephone numbers over a data channel, such as through a Web browser, a V-card, or a text message. Users often desire to initiate a telephone session by calling one of the received numbers. At present, initiating these calls is a multi-step process.
That is, a user determines a desired number and either remembers the number or writes it down. The user then exits an interface in which the number is presented and dials the retrieved phone number using a telephone interface. This process is subject, of course, to a user forgetting the desired number, to a user not being in a situation where it is convenient to write the number, and other such inconveniences which are very frustrating to a user.
An inability of current mobile device interfaces to more cohesively handle telephone numbers between the varying interfaces is based somewhat on underlying hardware and infrastructure restrictions. More specifically, mobile devices with data and voice capabilities are dual modem devices that are able to utilize more than one transmission channel or mode, such as a data channel, a dispatch channel, and/or a voice channel. These devices are often referred to as dual mode or multi mode devices which for simplicity are referred to generically hereafter as dual mode devices. Dual mode devices can face a scenario in which one communication channel is active and a different channel wants to come into service. Even short periods of simultaneous dual transmissions can be disallowed for some dual mode device implementations.
For example, Federal Communication Commission (FCC) guidelines, such as Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) requirements, can be violated when a mobile device transmits over more than one channel at a time. Antenna diversity, software/firmware infrastructure, service agreements, and other considerations can also limit a mobile device to a single active communication channel at a time.
Dual mode devices typically have an underlying infrastructure that maintains a strict separation between applications providing telephony functions and applications providing data communication functions. Further, telephony functions are often implemented at an extremely low level of the mobile device which, for security reasons, is protected. Data communication applications are often applications written for a JAVA virtual machine which does not have access to the lower level telephony functions. Similarly, native applications and other device applications can be shielded from lower level telephony functions. For all of these reasons information is not typically able to be conveyed across boundaries separating data applications from telephony applications. No known mobile device is able to convey telephone numbers or other contact information across this interface boundary.